WAIMEA — Pau-hana time — especially on a Friday afternoon — takes on its unique Westside flavor, and the Rotary Club of West Kaua‘i and Wrangler’s Restaurant and the Saddle Room invited more than 200 people to enjoy the afternoon and evening in one of the farthest points west in the country.
“Hey photographer, don’t forget to take a picture of the Hawaiian church,” one passer-by called out from the sidewalk as West Kaua‘i Rotarians Ray Paler and Dave Walker put finishing touches on the arrangement of the soup-to-go giveaway outside the Saddle Room, where hungry diners were already lining the side of the Waimea eatery ahead of the 4 p.m. start time.
“We miss you all and want you to come back and enjoy Kaua‘i’s Westside hospitality with some of our delicious, homemade, Portuguese bean soup,” states the invitation from the restaurant.
“You are all doing a great job keeping each other safe, and Wrangler’s says ‘Thank You!’ Our local restaurants and businesses now need your support to keep our economy going, so please kokua and enjoy everything the Westside has to offer.”
And the people came, some of the early diners inquiring about the restaurant’s dining-in options even while packages of individual soup servings flowed out of the kitchen to the tables outside the Saddle Room.
“Do you need masks?” Walker asked soup beneficiaries. “We have some masks available, too. And if you have keiki or kupuna, we have (discount) certificates for them, too.”
The rotary clubs on the island are no strangers to stimulating activity in communities, as the Rotary Club of Hanalei Bay hosted several campaigns to “shop local” following the record-breaking rains two years ago. The West Kaua‘i Rotary Club has been in the forefront of numerous events, including the Waimea Town Celebration and the annual Waimea Christmas Lighted Parade, in providing Westside flavor and hospitality to guests crossing the Waimea River bridge.
Inside the Saddle Room, the floor was cleared of any dine-in tables and chairs, and Sharla Bucasas iced down a bathtub filled with the afternoon’s allocation of beverages, the bar only getting the green light to open on June 16 by the mayor’s emergency rule 12 that was approved by Gov. David Ige under COVID-19 health-and-safety guidelines.
“I’ll take two,” said diner Kay Koike. “I didn’t know this was a drive-thru. I parked outside and walked over. Now I see these cars just driving up.”
The scenario continued as the sun made its daily dive into the Pacific, welcoming the cool evening air to blanket Waimea.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
